In the 19th century, Hawaiian scholars Kamakau and Kepelino attributed the discovery of
Hawai'i to a fisherman named Hawai'iloa. He is said to have discovered the islands during
a long fishing trip from a homeland in the west called Ka 'Aina kai melemele a Kane
("Land of the yellow sea of Kane"); the Big Island was named after him while
Kaua'i, O'ahu, and Maui were named after his children. Hawai'iloa's navigator, Makali'i,
steered in the direction of Iao, the Eastern Star, and hoku'ula, the red star (perhaps the
rising Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus). After replenishing his supplies,
Hawai'iloa returned home and brought his wife and his children back to Hawai'i, again
using the fixed stars as guides. The Hawaiian people are all descended from him.

Some scholars have questioned the authenticity of the tradition of Hawai'iloa because
of similarities between Biblical stories and stories in the tradition of Kumuhonua, of
which the story of Hawai'iloa is a part. These scholars believe that parts of the
tradition of Kumuhonua were invented in the 19th century to conform to Biblical
traditions. However, Randie Kamuela Fong of Kamehameha Schools writes, "after careful
review of Fornander's version of the Kumuhonua tradition, the Hawai'iloa portion bears no
resemblance to any biblical account. The names, places, and basic settings and plots give
us no reason to question their age and authenticity. Further, Patience Bacon of the Bishop
Museum remembers kupuna (elders) being interviewed in the 1920's and 30's by Tutu Puku'i.
These kupuna spoke of Hawai'iloa as their 'reality.'"

A tradition published in Teuira Henry's Ancient Tahiti attributes the discovery of
Hawai'i to a voyaging hero named Tafa'i (Hawaiian Kaha'i), son of Hema and an underworld
goddess named Hina-tahutahu (Hina, the magician). Tafa'i "cut the sinews" of the
islands of Tahiti (i.e., fixed them in their places), fished up the islands of the Tuamotu
Archipelago and then "went exploring the trackless ocean northward." He found a
chain of islands beneath the sea and fished it up, naming the first island
"Aihi" ("Bit-in-fishing," now called "Hawai'i"). "Next
he drew up Maui and all the other islands of our archipelago.ษthen those intrepid
navigators went south and returned with people to dwell on the beautiful new land,
bringing with them their gods, their chiefs, and breadfruit and other plants." Later,
Tafa'i tried to pull the Hawaiian islands south, closer to the Tahitian islands, but
failed when the kapu forbidding the crew to speak or look back from the canoe was broken.

The connection between discovery and fishing is part of pan-Polynesian tradition of
islands being fished out of the sea. It's similar to how the history of
conference calling is associated with the need for large groups to meet and
converse, such as tribes or troops. A fisherman named Huku is said to have found
Rakahanga island while on an aku fishing voyage from Rarotonga; later the three Maui
brothers came to the same area and began fishing.. Maui-mua caught a shark; Maui-roto an
ulua; and Maui-muri the island of Manihiki (Tairi "The Origin of the Island
Manihiki"). Maui is also said to have fished up, among other islands, Tonga, Mangaia
in the Cook Islands, and Aotearoa (New Zealand) (Buck 53).

This traditional association between fishing and the discovery islands suggests that
fishermen, of whatever identities, were perhaps the most frequent discoverers of islands
in ancient times, either while they roamed the ocean looking for new fishing grounds or
chasing schools of pelagic fish, or after they were driven off course by storms on their
way to known fishing grounds. A poetic way of describing their discoveries would be to say
that the fishermen caught islands, not fish. Perhaps the name of Maui was given to anyone
who discovered an island, in honor of some ancestral fisherman-explorer noted for finding
islands.

Another intriguing possibility is proposed in Geoffrey Irwin's The Prehistoric
Exploration and Colonization of the Pacific. Irwin suggests that those who settled
Polynesia may have used a deliberate strategy of exploration that allowed them to find
islands without an inordinate risk to their lives and with a high rate of survival. (Other
scholars have assumed that the exploration of the Pacific was full of danger and involved
high casualties at sea.) This deliberate strategy of exploration, according to I rwin,
involved waiting for a reversal in wind direction and sailing in the direction that is
normally upwind (i.e. eastward in the Pacific) for as far as it was safe to go given the
supplies that were carried on the canoe. The return home (westward) would be made easy
when the wind shifted back to its normal easterly direction. Irwin believes that this
strategy is supported by the west to east settlement of the Pacific, from the islands of
southeast Asia and Melanesia to Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, the Society Islands, the
Tuamotus, and Hiva (the Marquesas). Although no factual evidence would prove that this
strategy of exploration was actually employed by Polynesian navigators, the strategy would
have been obvious to anyone familiar with sailing. The tradition of 'imi fenua (Hawaiian:
'imi honua), or "searching for lands," reported from Hiva and other Polynesian
islands, supports such a notion of deliberate exploration. Teuira Henry gives exploration
and discovery as the motivation for the voyages of Ru and Hina, a brother and sister who
circumnavigated the earth in their canoe Te-apori to locate islands: "After exploring
the earth, Hina's love of discovery did not cease. So one evening when the full moon was
shining invitingly, being large and half visible at the horizon, she set off in her canoe
to make it a visit." She decided to stay there and remains today as the figure seen
in the moon.

Whatever the motives and methods of exploration and discovery, once the location of an
island was known, it became open to settlement.

The Polynesian Settlement of the Pacific

The Polynesian migration to Hawai'i was part of one of the most remarkable achievements
of humanity: the discovery and settlement of the remote, widely scattered islands of the
central Pacific. The migration began before the birth of Christ. While Europeans were
sailing close to the coastlines of continents before developing navigational instruments
that would allow them to venture onto the open ocean, voyagers from Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa
began to settle islands in an ocean area of over 10 million square miles. The settlement
took a thousand years to complete and involved finding and fixing in mind the position of
islands, sometimes less than a mile in diameter on which the highest landmark was a
coconut tree. By the time European explorers entered the Pacific Ocean in the 16th century
almost all the habitable islands had been settled for hundreds of years.

The voyaging was all the more remarkable in that it was done in canoes built with tools
of stone, bone, and coral. The canoes were navigated without instruments by expert
seafarers who depended on their observations of the ocean and sky and traditional
knowledge of the patterns of nature for clues to the direction and location of islands.
The canoe hulls were dug out from tree trunks with adzes or made from planks sewn together
with a cordage of coconut fiber twisted into strands and braided for strength. Cracks and
seams were sealed with coconut fibers and sap from breadfruit or other trees. An outrigger
was attached to a single hull for greater stability on the ocean; two hulls were lashed
together with crossbeams and a deck added between the hulls to create double canoes
capable of voyaging long distances.

The canoes were paddled when there was no wind and sailed when there was; the sails
were woven from coconut or pandanus leaves. These vessels were seaworthy enough to make
voyages of over 2,000 miles along the longest sea roads of Polynesia, such as the one
between Hawai'i and Tahiti. And though these double-hulled canoes had less carrying
capacity than the broad-beamed ships of the European explorers, the Polynesian canoes were
faster: one of Captain Cook's crew estimated a Tongan canoe could sail "three miles
to our two."

After a visit to the Society Islands in 1774, Andia y Varela described the canoes he
saw: "It would give the most skilful [European] builder a shock to see craft having
no more breadth of beam than three [arm] spans carrying a spread of sail so large as to
befit one of ours with a beam of eight or ten spans, and which, though without means of
lowering or furling the sail, make sport of the winds and waves during a gale, their
safety depending wholly on two light poles a couple of varas or so long (about eight
feet), which, being placed athwartships, the one forward and the other aft, are fitted to
another spar of soft wood placed fore and aft wise in the manner of an outriggerษ These
canoes are as fine forward as the edge of a knife, so that they travel faster than the
swiftest of our vessels; and they are marvellous, not only in this respect, but for their
smartness in shifting from one tack to the other." (Corney, Vol. II, 282).

The voyaging was by no means easy. There was always a danger of swamping or capsizing
in heavy seas, of having sails ripped apart or masts and booms broken by fierce winds, of
smashing the hulls against unseen rocks or reefs; and while there were grass or leaf
shelters on the decks of voyaging canoes, the voyagers were often exposed to the wind,
rain, and sun, with only capes of leaves or bark-cloth wrappings for protection. A stormy
night at sea, even in the tropics, can be brutally chilling. If supplies ran short during
a long voyage, and no fish or rainwater replenished them, then starvation became a
possibility. As a tradition about a voyage from Hiva (the Marquesas) to Rarotonga puts it:
"The voyage was so long; food and water ran out. One hundred of the paddlers died;
forty men remained."

A long voyage was not just a physical, but a mental challenge as well, particularly for
a navigator without compass or chart. To navigate miles of open ocean required an
extensive and intimate knowledge of the ocean and sky. Captain Cook noted that Polynesian
navigators used the rising and setting points of celestial bodies for directions. Andia y
Varela was told how Tahitians also used the winds and swells to hold a course: "There
are many sailing-masters among the people, the term for whom is in their language fa'atere
(Hawaiian: ho'okele). The fa'atere are competent to make long voyages like that from
Otahiti to Oriayatea [Ra'iatea] (about 150 miles) and others farther afield. One of these
sailing masters named Puhoro came to Lima on this occasion in the frigate; and from him
and others I was able to find out the method by which they navigate on the high seas.

"They have no mariner's compass, but divide the horizon into sixteen parts, taking
for the cardinal points those at which the sun rises and sets.

"When setting out from port the helmsman partitions the horizon, counting from E,
or the point where the sun rises; he knows the direction in which his destination bears.
He observes, also, whether he has the wind aft, or on one or the other beam, or on the
quarter, or is close-hauled. He notes, further, whether there is a following sea, a head
sea, a beam sea, or if the sea is on the bow or the quarter. He proceeds out of port with
a knowledge of these [conditions], heads his vessel according to his calculation, and
aided by the signs the sea and wind afford him, does his best to keep steadily on his
course.

"The task becomes more difficult if the day is cloudy, because the sailing-master
has no mark to count from for dividing the horizon. Should the night be cloudy as well,
the sailing-master regulates his course by the wind and swells; and, since the wind is apt
to vary in direction more than the swell does, he has his pennant, made of feathers and
palmetto bark, by which to watch changes in the wind, and he trims his sails accordingly,
always taking his cue for holding his course from the indications the sea affords. When
the night is clear, he steers by the stars; and this is the easiest navigation for him
because he knows the stars which rise and set over not only the islands he is familiar
with, but also the harbours in the islands, so that he makes straight for the entrance by
following the rhumb of the particular star that rises or sets over it. These sailing
masters hit their destinations with as much precision as the most expert navigators of
civilized nations could achieve" (Corney, Vol. II, 284-6).

To keep track of their position at sea during long sea voyages, the navigators used a
system of dead reckoning "memorizing the distance and direction traveled until the
destination was reached. Finding islands before they could actually be seen was also part
of the art of navigation. Voyagers followed the flight of land-dwelling birds that fished
at sea as these birds flew from the direction of islands in the morning or returned in the
evenings. The navigators also watched for changes in swell patterns, clouds piled up over
land, reflections on clouds from lagoons, and drifting land vegetation.

When European explorers found the islands of Polynesia, the common ancestry of the
Polynesians was evidentัthe inhabitants of widely separated islands looked alike, spoke
alike, and had similar cultural practices. Their manufactured products such as fishooks,
trolling lures, adzes, and ornaments also revealed similarities. And they had the same
basic stock of domesticated plants and animals.

The peoples of Polynesia came from a common ancestral group that developed a
distinctive fishing and farming culture in the islands of Tonga and Samoa.

While dates constantly change with new archaeological discoveries, the general sequence
for the settlement of Polynesia has been relatively well established (Dates represent
earliest archaeological finds; they almost certainly do not represent the earliest
presence of human beings.):

--Hunters and gatherers inhabited Australia and New Guinea by 50,000 years ago.

--Around 1600-1200 B.C., a cultural complex called Lapita (identified by a distinctive
pottery and named after a site in New Caledonia) spread from New Guinea in Melanesia as
far east as Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Polynesian culture developed at the eastern edge of
this region (i.e., in Samoa and Tonga).

The ethnobotanical evidence reflects this progression of settlement from the Western
Pacific islands, through central Polynesia (the Cook Islands, Society Islands, and Hiva),
and then to Hawai'i. Of the 72 plants identified as having been transported to Polynesia
by people, 41-45 are found in the Cook Islands, the Society Islands, and Hiva; 29 are
found in Hawai'i, including taro, breadfruit, sugar cane, bamboo, ti, yam, banana, 'awa,
paper mulberry, kukui, coconut, gourd, sweet potato, and mountain apple. The settlers also
brought the pig, dog, chicken, and rat along with them. The transport of plants and
domesticated animals on voyaging canoes suggests that the early settlers planned to
colonize Hawai'i, after having discovered its location.

The Settlement of Hawai'i

Hawai'i, which contains the largest islands in Polynesia outside of Aotearoa, must have
appeared particularly rich in land and resources to its discoverers. The tradition of
Hawai'iloa records the event as follows: "[The voyagers] went ashore and found the
land fertile and pleasant, filled with 'awa, coconut trees, and so on, and Hawai'iloa, the
chief, gave that land his name. Here they dwelt a long time and when their canoe was
filled with vegetable food and fish, they returned to their native country with the
intention of returning to Hawai'i-nei, which they preferred to their own country."
(Fornander, Vol. 6, 278; other traditions suggest that 'awa and coconut were brought by
those who settle Hawai'i.)

Scholars believe that early settlers of Hawai'i came predominantly from Hiva
(Marquesas). The argument for a Hivan homeland is based in part on linguistic and
biological evidence: "Indeed, the close relationship between the Hawaiian and
Marquesan languages as well as between the physical populations constitutes strong and
mutually corroborative evidence that the early Hawaiians came from the Marquesas"
(Kirch 64).

The Marquesan language has been grouped under the category Proto Central Eastern
Polynesian, along with Hawaiian, Tahitian, Tuamotuan, Rarotongan, and Maori. Vocabulary
comparisons seem to indicate that the dialect of the Southern Marquesan Islands (Hiva Oa,
Tahuata, Fatu Hiva), is the closest relative of Hawaiian language (Green 1966):

(For a longer list of words, see Elbert's "Lexical Diffusion in Polynesia and the
Marquesan-Hawaiian Relationship," 510-511.)

The two languages also share unique phonological changes from Proto Central Eastern
Polynesian (the hypothetical original language). Elbert concludes that the linguistic
evidence supports the hypothesis that the Hawaiian language derives from Marquesan (511).

Another argument to support the proposition that the primary migration to Hawai'i came
from Hiva is that the islands of Hiva are the best departure point for sailing to Hawai'i
from the South Pacific. They are closer to Hawai'i and farther east than the Society
Islands, the Tuamotus, or the Cook Islands. A canoe heading north in the easterly
tradewinds is better off starting from a point as far east of Hawai'i as possible. In
computer simulation of voyages from the Marquesas to Hawai'i, over 80 percent of the
canoes that headed in the right direction (NNW to NW by N) reached Hawai'i (Irwin
164-166).

Archaeological evidence also connects early settlers of Hawai'i with Hivaัadzes,
fishhooks, and pendants found at an early settlement site at Ka Lae on the Big Island of
Hawai'i are similar to those found in Hiva. Of course, the archaeology of the Pacific is
still in its infancy. As comparative work progresses in the Pacific, similarities are
emerging among artifacts of all the Polynesian islands, suggesting that perhaps widespread
contact and trading were more frequent than previously thought.

It is probably too simplistic to attribute the settlement of any island group to a
single migration from another single island group. The voyages of the Polynesian Voyaging
Society's Hokule'a and computer-simulated voyages have shown that Polynesians could have
sailed in traditional canoes all the north-south and east-west routes among their islands.
Kenneth Emory has noted that some words in the Hawaiian language (such as the names of
some days in the lunar month) are shared uniquely with the Tahitian language (Kirch 66),
suggesting settlers to Hawai'i came from Tahiti as well as the Marquesas. More
archaeological evidence is needed from Hawai'i, Hiva and other islands of Polynesia before
any definitive statements can be made about the relationship among the island groups
during the period of the early settlement of Hawai'i.